The majority of respondents in a survey carried out by Sant Maral Foundation in April said unemployment is the main problem in Mongolia today.

While 38.6 percent held this view, 21.1 percent said the standard of living is the main problem, while 8 percent believe inflation is the key issue. The representative sample of 1,200 respondents from Ulaanbaatar and from Dornogobi, Dundgobi, Zavkhan, Khentii and Arkhangai aimags was collected from April 16 to April 23. The survey is sponsored by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation of Germany.

Asked about the present economic situation in the country, 42.8 percent of the respondents said it was “bad”, 36.3 percent “not good, nor bad”, 3.8 percent answered “good” and 6 percent said “very good”. While 29.5 percent consider the economic situation to be “in decline”, 47.5 percent said it is “in stagnation”, while 14.3 percent said it is “improving”. In five years, the economic situation will be “slightly better”, said 40.2 percent, “much better” according to 4.4 percent and 20.2 percent thought it will remain “the same”.

To the question “How satisfied are you with democracy and the present political system?”, 18.8 percent said they are “satisfied”, 39.4 percent “rather satisfied”, 22.2 percent “rather not satisfied” and 16.7 percent were “not satisfied”.
Replying to a question on which party they would you vote for if parliament elections were held tomorrow, 35.1 percent favored the MPRP, 39.5 percent the DP, 4.5 percent the Civil Will Party and 5 percent the New National Party.

Asked to choose a country as the best partner for Mongolia, 75.7 percent favored Russia, 18.8 percent China, 27.4 percent the USA, 10.6 percent the European Union, 15.8 percent Japan, and 11.4 percent South Korea.

Source: Montsame; highlighted in the BCM Newswire by Business Council of Mongolia (BCM). For the complete Sant Maral Foundation April 2010 survey, see Mongolia Reports within Resources section of the BCM website.